Application of thermal therapy to a patient after an injury or trauma helps to minimize tissue damage of the patient following the injury. For example, application of cold therapy to a patient, such as an athlete, after incurrence of a muscle injury helps to reduce pain, muscle spasms, tissue damage, and swelling at the injury site. In another example, patients that suffer from stroke, cardiac arrest, or trauma, such as head trauma, as well as patients that have undergone invasive brain or vascular surgery, are at risk for ischemic injury. Ischemic injury occurs as a result of a lack of oxygen (e.g. lack of oxygenated blood) to an organ, such as caused by a blockage or constriction to a vessel carrying blood to the organ. Induction of systemic hypothermia (e.g., a hypothermic state) in a patient may minimize ischemic injury when the patient suffers from a stroke, cardiac arrest, heart attack, trauma, or surgery. In the case where the patient suffers a heart attack, the effectiveness of hypothermia is a function of the depth (e.g., within a temperature range between approximately 30° C. and 35° C. for example) and duration of the hypothermic state as applied to the heart. The effectiveness of the hypothermia is also a function of the amount of time that elapses between the original insult (e.g., heart attack) and achievement of protective levels of hypothermia. Also, for trauma and stroke patients, hypothermia aids in controlling swelling of the patient's brain.
In such cases, patients conventionally receive cold or hypothermic therapy by way of cooling devices. Typical cooling devices include heat exchange structures that receive cooling fluid from a console. For example, in the case of an athletic injury, a heat exchange pad contacts an athlete's skin in a location in proximity to a muscle injury. The console pumps cooling fluid to the heat exchange pad to reduce the temperature of the patient's tissue in the vicinity of the injury.
In one typical console used with a cooling device, such as the console used in the GAME READY Accelerated Recovery System (Game Ready Inc., Berkeley, Calif.) a user fills the console with an ice and water mixture to prepare the console for operation. During operation, a user places a cooling pad in contact with an injured area of a patient or athlete and couples the cooling pad with the console. The user then activates the console that in turn, circulates the ice-cooled water within the console through the cooling pad. The ice-cooled water reduces the temperature of the pad and reduces the temperature of the injury site of the patient to minimize tissue swelling and damage.
In another typical console used with a cooling device, such as used in inducing hypothermia in a patient, includes a reservoir containing refrigeration or cooling coils attached to a refrigerant. During operation, the console reduces the temperature of the refrigeration coils by circulating a refrigerant or low temperature fluid within the refrigeration coils. The refrigeration coils, in turn, reduce the temperature of a fluid contained by the reservoir. The console delivers the cooled fluid to a body-cooling device placed in contact with a patient. The cooled fluid reduces the temperature of the body-cooling device and, in turn, reduces the temperature of the injury site of the patient to minimize tissue swelling and damage.